Synchronizing tasks between servers

• US 8,028,070 B2
• Filed: 05/18/2009
• Issued: 09/27/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 05/18/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Boyd, Christopher Andrew, Murugan, Robert, Christensen, Michael James, Vootkuri Krishna, Chythanya, Lev, Boaz
• Primary Examiner(s): Chan; Wing
• Assistant Examiner(s): MIAH, RAZU A
• Application Number:
  US12/467,534
• Publication Number:
  US 20100293278A1
• Time in Patent Office: 862 Days
• Field of Search: 709204-207, 709223-226
• US Class Current: 709/226
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/52 Program synchronisation; Mutual exclusion, e.g. by means of semaphores
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0253 During e-commerce, i.e. online transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]

Abstract

Systems and methods for synchronizing task data between a mailbox server of an email system and a project server of a project management system include a project that is published on the project management system, task data for the project is sent from the project server to the mailbox server. The task data includes the attributes of the project tasks and resources assigned to the project tasks. When the mailbox server receives the task data, the mailbox server creates a task on the mailbox server for each task for which the task doesn'"'"'t already exist on the mailbox server. The mailbox server inserts each created task into the mailbox of the assignee for the task. The assignee can view the task attributes and update task status using a client that accesses the mailbox server.

Claims

1. A method implemented on a first server computer for synchronizing project task information between the first server computer and a second server computer, the method comprising:

publishing a project on the first server computer, the first server computer implementing a project management software program, the project comprising one or more tasks, each of the one or more tasks including one or more attributes;

mapping attributes for at least one of the one or more project tasks to corresponding task attributes used on a mail server program on the second server computer, the task attributes used on the mail server program being a subset of the project task attributes;

sending task data for one or more project tasks from the first server computer to the second server computer, the task data including the mapped attributes for the one of the project tasks, the task data being sent to the second server computer using web services;

receiving a notification from the second server computer that a project task has been updated on the second server computer;

after receiving a notification from the second server computer that a project task has been updated on the second server computer, sending a request to the second server computer for the task attributes of the project task that has been updated on the second server computer;

after sending a request to the second server computer for the task attributes of the project task that has been updated, receiving the task attributes of the project task that has been updated from the second server computer;

after receiving the task attributes of the project task that has been updated from the second server computer, determining whether the received task attributes of the project task are newer than task attributes for the project task stored on the first server computer;

when a determination is made that the received task attributes for the project task are newer than the task attributes for the project task stored on the first server computer, replacing the task attributes of the project task stored on the first server computer with the received task attributes;

updating the project task on the first server computer via a task status update on the first server computer; and

mapping one or more attributes for the project task updated via the task status update to corresponding task attributes on the mail server program on the second server computer.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein sending the mapped task attributes for at least one of the one or more project tasks to the second server computer further comprises sending a registration request to the second server computer to register the at least one of the one or more project tasks at the second server computer.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising sending task assignment information from the first server computer to the second server computer.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the task assignment information includes an identifier for the task and a resource assigned to the task.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein determining whether the received task attributes of the project task are newer than task attributes for the project task stored on the first server computer comprises comparing a timestamp for the received task attributes with a timestamp for the project task stored on the first server computer.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein sending a request to the second server computer for the task attributes of the project task that has been updated on the second server computer further comprises using web services to send the request to the second server computer.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the task attributes used on the mail server program includes an attribute indicating percent complete.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising the task status update being received over the Internet from a client computer.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein updating a project task further comprises updating one or more attributes for the task on the first server computer.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising sending the one or more mapped attributes to the second server computer.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing a timestamp for the updated project task on the first server computer.

12. A computing device, comprising:

a processing unit;

a system memory connected to the processing unit, the system memory comprising instructions that, when executed by the processing unit, cause the processing unit to create;

a publishing module that processes the publishing of one or more tasks associated with a project, each task having one or more attributes;

a status module that processes updates to the one or more attributes for the one or more tasks;

a mapping module that maps one or more attributes for the one or more tasks to corresponding task attributes used on an email program, the attributes used on the email program being a subset of the attributes for each of the one or more tasks; and

a mailbox module that processes a notification from a server computer that a task that has been updated on the server computer and that initiates a process to obtain task attributes from the server computer for the task that is updated, the process using web services to obtain the task attributes,

wherein, the mapping module maps one or more of the obtained task attributes to corresponding task attributes on the email program.

13. The computing device of claim 12, wherein the processing unit further creates a project web access module that provides Internet access to the computing device.

14. The computing device of claim 13, wherein the project web access module includes a project server interface forwarder module that provides an interface to the computing device for project management system on a client computer.

15. The computing device of claim 12, wherein the processing unit further creates a job queue that receives queue jobs from the publishing module and from the statusing module, the queue jobs providing information to create and update project tasks on a mailbox server.

16. The computing device of claim 12, wherein the processing module and the statusing module include one or more task objects, each task object including a timestamp that indicates when the task object was last updated.

17. A computer-readable data storage medium, not being a signal, and having computer executable instructions stored thereon which, when executed by a processing unit of a first server computer, cause the processing unit to:

publish a project on the first server computer, the first server computer implementing a project management software program, the project comprising one or more tasks, each of the one or more tasks including one or more attributes;

map attributes for at least one of the one or more project tasks to corresponding task attributes used on a mail server program on the second server computer, the task attributes used on the mail server program being a subset of the project task attributes;

send task data for one or more project tasks from the first server computer to the second server computer, the mapped task attributes being sent to the second server computer using methods exposed by an application programming interface on the second server computer, the task data including the mapped task attributes for the one of the project tasks, the task data being sent to the second server computer using web services;

receive a notification from the second server computer that a project task has been updated on the second server computer;

after receiving a notification from the second server computer that a project task has been updated on the second server computer, send a request to the second server computer for the task attributes of the project task that has been updated on the second server computer;

after sending a request to the second server computer for the task attributes of the project task that has been updated, receive the task attributes of the project task that has been updated from the second server computer;

after receiving the task attributes of the project task that has been updated from the second server computer, determine whether the received task attributes of the project task are newer than task attributes for the project task stored on the first server computer, the determination of whether the received task attributes of the project task are newer than task attributes of the project task stored on the first server computer including comparing a timestamp for the received task attributes with a timestamp of the attributes of the project task stored on the first server computer;

when it is determined that the received task attributes for the project task are newer than the task attributes for the project task stored on the first server computer, replace the task attributes of the project task stored on the first server computer with the received task attributes;

update status for a task, the updating of task status comprising modifying one or more attributes for the task, the updating of task status being received via a project web access portal on the computing device;

map one or more attributes for the task to corresponding task attributes used on a mail server program on a mailbox server; and

using web services to send the one or more mapped attributes for the task to the mailbox server.